flitecontrol wrote:Beautiful guns. I'd only seen box lock and side lock doubles before. What type is that? Are the shells extracted/ejected when the action is open?

The guns are made by the Darne (pronounced darn) company in France. It is an old design (pre 1900) called a 'sliding breech block'. And yes, the shells are extracted when the breech is open but only the shell that has been fired is extracted. If one is still not fired, it remains in the chamber. Darne calls this an 'automatic ejector', but it is actually just an auto extractor (the gun 'automatically' selects only the fired shell(s) and the shooter tips the gun over so that it can fall out). Lots more info and photos here: https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/201 ... ech-block/

Rogers Sporting Goods had a good price on a Case of Kent Bismuth 12 ga 23/4 11/4 oz 4s so I bought one. Will use them on several WMAs which require non-toxic shot hunting pheasants and if we jump any waterfowl along the way, them too.

Was wondering how folks who have used the load found the choke performance. Do your guns/choke pattern more tightly with this load as is common with steel, or does it pattern more similar to regular lead loads? Thanks for your input.

Seriously though, when my wife wanted to join me for a duck hunt she wanted to carry my 28 gauge (of course she likes my nicest gun) and I bought a box of 28 6 shot of Kent Bismuth for it. Really nice stuff, she folded a big late season bluebill over the dekes. Of course, we weren't taking long shots with it either.

AverageGuy wrote:Rogers Sporting Goods had a good price on a Case of Kent Bismuth 12 ga 23/4 11/4 oz 4s so I bought one. Will use them on several WMAs which require non-toxic shot hunting pheasants and if we jump any waterfowl along the way, them too.

Was wondering how folks who have used the load found the choke performance. Do your guns/choke pattern more tightly with this load as is common with steel, or does it pattern more similar to regular lead loads? Thanks for your input.

My unscientific hunch is that bismuth patterns more or less the same as lead.